1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to refrigeration and, more particularly, a refrigeration system capable of multi-faceted operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the food service industry, there is a need for storing of food items in refrigerators and freezers. Food items can be blast chilled in order to reduce a temperature of the food items down to a safe storage temperature for later consumption. Food items stored in refrigerators and freezers commonly need to be thawed prior to preparation and consumption. Typically, separate appliances are required for refrigeration, freezing, thawing, and blast chilling food items undesirably requiring the food items to be transferred to multiple appliances. Different food items can require different storage temperatures; however, food items stored in the same refrigerator, freezer, thaw box, or blast chiller must all be stored at a single temperature. Refrigerators, freezers, thaw boxes, and blast chillers are typically large and undesirably occupy large areas in a kitchen or storage area.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,915,657 and 6,901,767 to Wood provide a refrigerator/freezer appliance having rectangular-fronted drawers arranged one above another and housed in a cabinet. The interior of the cabinet is divided by insulated lids, one for each drawer. When the drawer is closed, the open top of its associated bin is closed by an appropriate one of the lids. The lids include evaporator elements of known type disposed in the lower face of each lid. A refrigerator engine compartment includes an impeller exhausting through apertures provided in the front face of the refrigerator engine compartment. Ambient air enters the appliance where it immediately comes into contact with the outer surfaces of the bins and warms them to ambient temperature before being drawn towards a void and then upwards through the void by circulation of the air to minimize condensation. Wood undesirably requires lids for each drawer. The Wood appliance undesirably cools the product in the bin from only the top. Wood does not include the capability to be a thaw cabinet.
PCT Patent Application Publication No. WO2005024315 to Wood provides a drawer storage appliance such as a refrigerator that includes a closure being a fixed generally horizontal lid and a container being an open-topped drawer that is movable horizontally with respect to the lid. The lid has a skirt that depends therefrom to support a first sealing loop that is a continuous peripheral downwardly-facing lid seal. The skirt and the lid seal of Wood are shaped to correspond to and cooperate with a second sealing loop that is a continuous upwardly facing sealing surface around the upper peripheral rim defined by generally vertical walls of the drawer. Again, Wood undesirably requires lids, in this case, having a seal between the lid and drawer. The horizontal seal described in Wood is undesirable with its sealing plane being parallel to the drawer operation. When temperatures of the appliance interior are below freezing this may cause the seal to freeze and render the drawer inoperable because of the large shear plane forces being placed on the gasket seal.
PCT Patent Application Publication No. WO2005024314 to Wood provides a refrigerator including a refrigerant circuit having a compressor, a condenser, an expansion means and an evaporator. The evaporator includes a branched portion having a plurality of parallel branches each having a respective evaporator of the evaporator means. A four-compartment arrangement is also provided. Each compartment is cooled by a respective evaporator on respective parallel branches of the circuit. The compartments can be used as a refrigerator or as a freezer by a mass control achieved by cycling a respective solenoid shut-off valve serving each evaporator. Each branch of the circuit is served by a respective thermal expansion valve whose superheat sensor is downstream of the evaporator of that branch. Wood, as described above, is doing the same operation, which has been done for years in refrigerated appliances.
The Wood prior art described above has a drawer gasket having a disadvantage in that its sealing plane is parallel to the drawer operation. When temperatures of the appliance interior are below freezing this may cause the seal to freeze and render the drawer inoperable because of the large shear plane forces being placed on the gasket seal, as discussed above. The use of the insulated tubs described in the Wood prior art described above are not compatible with standard, readily available foodservice containers. Also, the airflow around the food product/container is only from the top.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved refrigeration system that is capable of multi-faceted operation and allows for varied storage space. There is also a need for an improved refrigeration system that is capable of cooling a product on all sides by providing even air-flow around all sides of a containment bin. There is a further need for a seal that is perpendicular to the drawer operation. There is an additional need for a method that circulates air around the entire food product/container.